Lockney’s Coats to play softball at Eastern New Mexico

Published 7:45 am, Saturday, April 9, 2016

Those who compete in sports in college are called student-athletes. For Lockney’s Shelby Coats, the emphasis is on ‘student.’

But by a quirky turn of events, the Lockney High School senior will get the chance to explore the ‘athlete’ portion of that moniker.

Coats, who is in her second year as Lockney’s pitcher, signed a letter of intent in November to play softball at Eastern New Mexico University. It was not something she had planned on at the beginning of her senior year of high school.

Coats, who was Lockney’s shortstop as a sophomore before becoming the pitcher, wasn’t thinking about her athletic career as she looked for a college choice. She was focused on getting her education. She decided to look into attending Eastern New Mexico, where she hopes to major in Education.

So, in September, Coats went on a tour of the school. Playing softball there wasn’t even in her thoughts.

“I went because I really liked the school,” Coats said. “I wasn’t going to play softball.”

On her visit, Coats wore a Lockney softball shirt. It just so happened that the ENMU student who gave her the tour had a sister who plays on the college’s softball team. Noticing Coats’ shirt, the student guide asked if she might be interested in playing softball in college.

“It just kind of happened,” Coats said of the opportunity to play college ball. “I went for a college visit to view the school and I had on a softball shirt. The girl giving me the tour had a sister who played softball. And she was like, “Hey, I’ll introduce you to the coach.’”

Coats figured why not? So, she met the coach, who invited her for a tryout in November.

“I did everything at the tryout,” Coats said. “I struggled with fielding, but I pitched really well and so she really liked that.”

And within a short time, Coats had signed on to play for the Zias.

Coats said she had toyed with the idea of playing softball in college, but didn’t want to go through the process. Her education was foremost in her mind.

“I thought about it here and there,” she said. “But I didn’t want to go and try out and do the whole chasing them. I was like, ‘If it happens, it happens. If it doesn’t, I’ll go to school and get an education.’”

Coats has been playing softball for more than a decade. She began as a 6-year-old in the Optimist League in Plainview. At first, she wasn’t exactly the star of the team.

“I was the roly-poly they put in the outfield,” she recalled with a laugh. “I batted ninth. They didn’t want me to play at all. They were like, ‘please don’t hit it to her, please don’t hit it to her.’”

Eventually, Shelby became the catcher. The pitcher on the team was her current Lockney teammate Lexi Chavez, who recently signed to play softball at Frank Phillips College. Now, Shelby is the pitcher and Chavez is the catcher.

Coats said she began to play summer league softball when she was 11. And as a youngster, she spent lots of time in her backyard practicing with her dad, Jay Coats.

“My dad and I had a really good connection through softball,” Shelby said. “I pitched to him. He would help me with stuff. We did pretty much everything together. I would bounce the ball off the back of the house and hit it. We had a brick wall and I’d throw the ball up and I’d hit it off the wall.”

And, with the help of her dad, Shelby had a great desire to become a better softball player.

“I just always wanted to be better at it,” she said. “And so I kept practicing and kept practicing and once you get pretty good at it, it’s a lot of fun.”

Shelby said perseverance is important if one wants to play softball at the high school level and into college. She said there have been many ups and downs on the softball field during her career. And she has advice for youngsters who want to play into their high school and maybe college years.

“Don’t get so hard on yourself,” she said. “It’s okay, you have bad days. Just put the glove down for a few minutes, realize that it’s okay to mess up, and just pick yourself up. Just keep going.”

And if you do that, as Shelby has, there’s no telling what opportunities might present themselves - even if you’re not focused in that direction.